Starting a Clan in Role-play

Clans, everybody wants to have one, so they try to make one. We have those who make their clans and they are successful, and some successful clans even go on to be remembered for ages. Then there are those who fall flat right on their face, and just can't get their RP going. Hopefully, with this guide, we can see more people leading on great, successful clan role-plays than those who struggle.

Contents

What is a Clan

A clan, or as some just call them "role-plays," are a group of people that role-play together, simply. These can have 3-7 players, just looking to have a good time, or they can go up 15-40+ players who are part of a massive kingdom. Clans however, take dedication.

Types of Clans

Usually when you have a clan, your clan has some type of role-play that you base your clan around. There are many different types of role-play that your clan can focus on. While the sky is the limit when it comes to clan concepts, these are some examples of popular and often successful themes:

Family

POC

Empire

Kingdom

Village

Town

City

Organized Groups

Cult

Clan (Elves)

Coven (Vampyres)

Business

Criminal

Assassin

Gang

Mob

Adventurers

Military

Knights

Melee, Ranged, and Magical divisions

Special Operations

Tactical/Strategic

Town Guard

Non-Military Combat

Mercenaries

Education

Liberal Arts Schools

Combat Academies

Magical Institutions

Guilds

Do's

When starting a clan, there are things you do and things you don't do if you want your clan to be successful. This section focuses on the things one should do.

When making a clan, always getting a few friends together first is a good idea. You all get to role-play together and get something going. This is normally done before the thread, and maybe even clan chat, is created.

Advertise! After you get your thread up, go and advertise somehow! This doesn't necessarily mean walk around Falador with your clan vexillium in hand and your auto-typer flashing an advertisement for you; there are several ways to go about doing this. Placing your clan vexillium in a popular area, so long as your private chat is set to on, can attract a few customers. Another effective idea is organizing group role-plays with your clan somewhere in the public eye. You and your group running around role-playing can attract a few people as well.

Making a thread is a good idea. It helps to organize members and raise awareness. Some role-plays have gone without threads and been successful, but these are uncommon.

Make sure your role-play has some potential. If you come up with some cliche gimmick, such as a family of assassins, some sort of holy crusade, or just an ordinary attempt at a kingdom, your role-play might appear boring or might compete with other pre-existing larger clans and you won't attract many people. Think of something that will attract attention, such as a party of adventurers who search for treasures or an old standby with a special twist.

Extending onto making sure your role-play is interesting and shows some potential, make sure nobody has done it before, or it hasn't been done too often. A holy crusade is not a good example of one that will be looked at and will attract people, as the idea has been done multiple times and each time it was getting older and older. Also, in-real life influences may or may not have an impact you want.

Dont's

Things you should avoid if you want your clan to be successful.

OOC bribery: never bribe anyone OOC for anything IC. Let's say Robert wants to run a POC role-play based in Falador. However, he doesn't want to muster up the soldiers needed to invade the city nor does he care to persuade anybody In-Character to promote him or sell the city to him. Robert has a load of GP. Robert decides to bribe the leader of the POC in charge of Falador with about maybe 30 million gold OOC. This is a horrible idea. You should never bribe anybody for a city to start your role-play if your interest is a POC. This is a cheap move, and the reputation of any role-player(s) involved will plummet quickly. The same goes for bribing people to join your clan OOCly, whether it be with money or rank. You will end up looking desperate, people are likely to take advantage of you, and you become very vulnerable to scams. IC bribery, of course, is fine.

As it is mentioned in the guide to dying in role-play, making a clan solely just to ruin an OOC rival is a sore move. You can come up with as many IC reasons as you want, but people will be able to see it OOCly that the realm of OOC has a hand in this, and you will not be looked upon very well.

Do your best to maintain a good reputation in role-play if you want to end up leading a successful clan. As the leader does have a heavy influence on a clan, many players will choose not to join a clan if they feel they won't enjoy cooperating with the leader and his or her role-playing style.

Being unpleasant to your clan-mates: avoid showing disrepsect to your clan members, as it can hurt both you and your clan. If there is a clan member that you are very tempted to show disrespect to, use other methods. Fully-blown POC's that have thrived for months or more have been crippled because their leaders.

Do not attempt to start a clan alone if you don't fully intend to commit to raising it. Young clans often take a lot of work, grooming, and attention before they take off. They often demand hours of time many days a week to nurture, and even a clan with a great idea for its foundation will fail if there isn't anyone working to keep it alive and active.